Review Sites Embarrass Themselves Once Again

[dawman]

I can understand when someone makes a mistake, but when every review site makes the same mistake it's not hard to see what a sham these places have become.
I read on forums about how guys with bleeding edge gear are always suffering and then even make it worse by upgrading their software on top of unproven hardware, benchmarked by the " experts."
Recently AMD released this kick ass 785G chipset, which IMHO is what I want, despite the jive advertisements. I read the manual and have seen enough tests to know the capabilitites of this board and because it isn't packed w/ mulitple 16X slots and 6GB Marvell chips that don't work.....I could go on but I will just share some embarrassing links before they get removed or edited.
To make a long story short AMD states......"Get the Ultimate HD Experience. Let your desktop PC be the center of your entertainment lifestyle with full 1080p HD playback and 7.1 surround sound." Well it turns out that it doesn't support this 7.1 over HDMI afterall, which would have been a great stride for the HTPC crowd for sure.
But what is sad is that all of these " benchmarking experts " have posted all of their successful results, and not just one site, but at least the 6 top sites that are known for their " in depth " reviews, and " trustworthiness.".........................

http://techreport.com/discussions.x/12552
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3000

The retraction is here.
http://www.anandtech.com/weblog/showpost.aspx?i=629

At least the chump @ Anandtech has admitted his " oversights ", but many are claiming that their chips work fine, and the mass production models released after the NDA chips were the culprits. Get the Flock outta here. These clowns are trying to piss on our backs and tell us that it's raining............how embarrassing.
It's good to know every site had the same review and success story even though the chips do not possess this capability.........................LOVELY...

pissing_elephant.jpg

[lugnoor]

Outrageous, flagrant and scandalous.

[garyb]

that's how reviews are done. the manufacturer supplies the text to put in the story, and the individual writers put it in thier own words. advertising, baby...

[valis]

It's still a step forward from taking the magazine reps out to 'lunch' (strip-bar) or 'dinner' (paid escorts, depending on the 'level' of the magazine eh) just to even be 'allowed' to get the review (and the generally understood [required] full page ads that go with the review), and then waiting an extra 2 months until the printed page hit the streets...all with manufacturer 'approved' text.

[dawman]

Agreed,
I bought a subscription to a Virtual Magazine for 17 bucks and the guy is really good and does great reviews, Has for years actually, but I was unaware it was an annual mag. The site has a jpeg of 12 issues as if it was a monthly mag...........live and learn.
So far I have a 2008 issue and the 2009 issue came in early May......

I read these sites bacause they do get their hands on lots of stuff, and it's nice to get a glimpse of what's coming, but I have been reading the manual for weeks and was shocked to hear the announcement. Mini-ITX/HTPC/HDMI guys have all got their underwear in knots about this.
Many of them bought boards online or at Frye's which seems to carry lots of hardware these days. I guess because of AMD's marketing debacle they will be taking back lots of these.
Cool, maybe B stock will be 50 instead of 75...

I have learned from my son who is getting pretty good at Mandarin, that the Taiwanese sites are quite a bit ahead in the game, so his private tutoring has already come in handy.
He taught me how to count and write to 20.......oh boy.

[valis]

Well the other message here is obvious anyway, don't buy hardware until it's been vetted & gotten to at least rev2/3, at least if you're using it for anything important. I can't imagine you need onboard HDMI audio yourself though for doing a gig

[valis]

Jimmy, your post seems to have disappeared (I was replying to it some hours ago and forgot to hit submit.) Don't mind my light sarcasm, there's no ill will behind it. You probably get more use out of your systems than many people I know. And I agree that board coupled with an inexpensive Phenom II and a decent allocation of ram would probably be more than enough.

In fact I wouldn't cut that system out of being a 'gaming box', the onboard graphics on my wife's 780G box were plenty good for her to join me in Left4Dead for many months, albeit with settings turned down. In fact she enjoyed it so much so that we wound up upgrading her to a 4770 ($90 with $20 rebate, got one of the first ones out the gate months ago) which amazingly can almost match my graphics card's performance at 1/3 the cost (and she runs 1440x900 instead of 1920x1200 of course).

Anyway, build it and they will come! (and share pics plz!)

[dawman]

I hate seeing my name on some thread for more than a day or so. I figure the topic is dead, so I delete it.
I am as usual sitting on a fence and swaying.
The whole reason for using AMD is for a mobile 1U to brotha' up with the XITE-1.
I will see how it works only after one of my gearhead buddies in LV make a move.
I have a kick but rig right now, but I am looking to the future and for me to make 2 or even 3 gigs a day I need mobility. I was using a friends laptop w/ PianoTeq 3.1 and having a blast preparing for the gigs, but they evaporated as the Corporations running the Casinos are really cutting back. I am afraid that the SEIU is going to start picketing non-union joints and this will limit the gigs even more.
Now I will just start looking for restaraunts with a Piano. It's a great way to get Trim and audition for free. I usually scout out 2 or 3 places, then take a broad out to dinner and don't say anything about music. When you see the Piano just sit and start playing it, and usually the owner will come and see you and then the negotiations can start.
But these entrepenuers usually squeeze a quarter till the eagle screams. They want 3 hours, meaning 3 sets of 45 for 100 USD................Jeez.
Tough times, but everyone goes out to eat in Vegas, so I had better adjust since cash is still King.